Lost Souls, Love Triangles, and Big Robots, Oh My!
by AkumaMR
Summary: Poor, poor Meiran. But what if there was a way to bring her back? Could Wufei accept the new Meiran? Could Sally accept the new Meiran? Please RR! Warning: Unexpected plot twists ahead!
1. Darn Them Chinese Soap Operas

**A Story About a Guy, a Girl, and Some Really Big Robots**  
by AkumaMR  
11.17.02

Chapter 1: Darn Them Chinese Soap Operas

DISCLAIMER: I own naught but the totally random combination of Roman letters following.  
NOTES: 

  


"Today is the day. You will each choose an opponent and fight using the techniques I've been teaching you for the past month," the master announced. Everybody paired up, except for Huang and Ying. Huang was popular enough, but he was so strong nobody wanted to fight him for fear of breaking half the bones in their body. Ying was the best student in the class, and so they got stuck together. 

"You're gonna wish that you were never born," sneered Huang. "I'm going to pound you into oblivion and back." 

Ying made no comment. Huang was much stronger, but you only won if you had the brains. Huang was, to put it simply, an idiot. 

The match was over all too fast. Huang ended up pinned to the floor with his arm twisted painfully behind his back. 

"Ying! This is NOT a class for WRESTLING!" The instructor's sharp voice cut through the hall. Everybody stopped because it was always fun to watch the instructor yell at someone, as long as it wasn't yourself. 

"Sorry, sir. I promise it will not happen again." 

"Hmmph. We'll see about that." He looked at everyone else, who had been gawping at them for the past minute. "What are you all looking at? Get back to work!" Immediately, everyone did. You didn't want to mess with the master. Rumor was if you got him mad enough, he would turn purple and start to blow steam from his ears. Ying and Huang were the only ones who openly annoyed him. 

After an hour or so of bouting, the master made an annoucement. 

"Tomorrow we will begin the basics of swordplay. Make sure to be here on time. Class is dismissed." 

An audible sigh could be heard as the cluster of boys ambled home. Huang had half of the class and a good number of towngirls following him, whereas Ying wandered off alone. 

--- 

Back in his room at the inn, Ying relaxed on the couch, staring at the ceiling, reminiscing about his first day in the class. 

--- 

He had been leaning against a wall in the tall open room the class was held in, watching a small group of young men waiting for class to begin. They were chatting amiably, the main subject being Ying, the new student. 

"I heard that the new student is from the farther reaches of the Kingdom, " whispered one boy, "He's supposed to be rolling in money." 

"I heard that he isn't really Chinese at all, even. He's actually the son of the Emperor of Mongolia in disguise, to find out all the Middle Kingdom's martial arts secrets - a spy." 

"I heard that he's a street urchin that got hit by a cart and the Emperor gave him a place in our class because he felt sorry for him." Every now and then, between comments, everyone would turn and glance at Ying. Each time, Ying would glare at them with steely eyes, sending shivers up and down their spines. He could hear every word and inwardly laughed at how wrong they were. 

"Well, whoever he is, he looks really stupid and weak." It was Huang, all brawn and no brain at twenty-one, three years older than his teacher. "I bet I could beat him into the ground and he wouldn't know what to do." There was a smirk on his face as he hissed out the last sentence loud enough so that anyone hear. He flexed his muscles to make the point. 

"Class begins now, WHY aren't you lined up?" A young man, his hair tied back out of the way, strode into the room. With one glare, everyone scrambled into a perfectly straight line. Ying calmly strolled to the end of the line. 

The master of the class began counting off names and people. 

"...Zhi, Qian Hou, Zuo You, Huang Hua, Dong Xi, Nan Bei, -"[1] He stopped as he reached the end of the line, at the new student. He gave the newcomer a quick glance up and down and asked, "New student, I presume; state your name and age!" 

"Ying Hua, sir, 17," Ying said without hesitation. 

"Good. I like that attitude." 

The tall boy from before whispered to his neighbor, "Sucking up already. Geez - he's such a -" He jumped when the teacher whipped around to yell at him. 

"Huang! How many times do I have to tell you NOT to speak unless spoken to by ME?" The teacher quickly strode over to Huang and boxed him on both sides of his head. "Is this a way to set an example to fellow classmates?" 

"Sorry, sir!" 

"That's better, but work on it." With that he turned back to Ying. 

"Welcome to this martial arts class. Here you will hopefully learn something on the subject of martial arts. You do nothing unless told to and you do not stop unless ordered to. Here you will experience discipline, and hopefully learn something about it. I am your instructor, Chang Wufei. You obey only me, understand?" 

Most of the other boys in the class had already heard the speech at least ten times, and they tired of it. They put up with it only because the teacher was who he was. Their parents probably experienced one of the proudest moments in their lives when their boys were chosen to be taught martial arts in a royal class. They were all nobles' sons, of course. Some of the students were older than Master Chang, but they all obeyed him, for he was who he was. His martial arts ability was rumored to surpass the Emperor's, now that the old man had passed the prime of his life. But that was expected, since he WAS the Emperor's son. 

"This week I will test you on the "Twelve Descriptions". We'll see how much of last week's lessons you remembered and how much fled out of your brainless skulls." Then he turned to Ying. 

"Cherry blossom, eh? Such a womanly name. Let's just call you Ying. That comes off as ying as in hawk, at least. Heh, when you get old people will call you Lao Ying anyways.[2] No matter. Today you will sit out and observe the rest of the class. Observation teaches more than anything else. That is your first lesson." 

With that, he left Ying and began quizzing each of the students on the "Twelve Descriptions". No one in the class remembered any of them. Master Chang made the class repeat them so many times by the end of the day even Ying had learned all of them by heart, they ran through his head as he made his way home: _Yi: In motion, move like a thundering wave. Er: When still, be like a mountain. San: Rising up, be like a monkey. Si: Land swiftly and lightly like a bird. Wu--_ [3]

_Wu, like in Chang Wufei._

Ying talked to himself as he walked, "I wonder how his name is written. Maybe it's like Wuya except not," he pondered, and chuckled. "Maybe it's Wufei like 'flying fog'. What a stupid name. Maybe it's Wufei like 'no flying'?" And so he went, all the way back to the inn. [4] 

"Would you like to save and exit?" the innskeeper asked, as he approached the front desk.

Without questioning such an odd inquiry, Ying nodded and disappeared.

---

"So, Xiaoming, how was it?" [5]

"Not bad," said a Chinese girl, logging off and shutting down the computer she sat at. "I hacked some private rooms, and in one there was a dude prancing around as the emperor's son teaching a martial arts class and calling himself Chang Wufei." She took off a wired pair of goggles and leaned over to hit the power button on the CPU.

"I see," replied her brother, chuckling. "Did you set him in his place?"

"Nah, too much effort. Besides," she said, taking the wires off her neck and packing up the rest of the MVR (Multiplayer Virtual Realities) equipment, "his PC (Player Character) was kinda cute. I hacked his profile, too, and that's what he actually looks like."

"Whatever. It's time for you to go to _real_ martial arts practice and if we don't leave now we'll be late again."

"Yes, sir, Dage!" Ying jokingly saluted. "Right away, sir!" [6] 

  


Yumemiruon to Chapter Two--> 


	2. Just a Little BG Info

**A Story About a Guy, a Girl, and Some Really Big Robots**  
by AkumaMR  
07.06.03

Chapter 2: Just a Little BG Info...

DISCLAIMER: I own naught but the totally random combination of Roman letters following.

  


"Yes, sir, Dage!" Ying jokingly saluted. "Right away, sir!" 

Ying grabbed her things and Dage drove her to the martial arts center, only a couple miles from their apartment in uptown Shanghai. She hated riding in cars and distracted herself by watching through the window at passers-by, envying their normal, uneventful lives. She envied how they had not had three years and a mother stolen from them when they were fourteen.

Her mother had been driving her to the dentist's, and neither expected it when a drunk driver zoomed out of the next intersection and turned to hit them head on. The front of the car had crushed on impact, thrusting the steering wheel into Ying's mother, flattening her upper body against the seat and killing her instantly. At least, this is what Ying was told. Because although Ying had survived, she had done so just barely, and had been locked in a coma for three years, her body slowly withering away in a hospital. Just last year she had miraculously recovered, but with no memory of anything prior to her coma.

Her muscles were weak from disuse so the doctor advised her to take up some sort of sport or physical training. Dage had signed her up for a couple of tennis workshops because that was what Ying had enjoyed all through grade school, but she surprised both him and her father by choosing martial arts instead. She didn't really understand why she chose it over tennis, it just seemed right; furthermore, when she began, she found she had a natural skill and learned much faster than the other students in her class, and had worked her way up to the intermediate level in three months. She had just begun advanced classes a couple weeks ago, and the current lessons were on swordplay, something Ying had been looking forward to since her first class.

And so she contemplated the abnormalities of her life, all the way to practice, where more important matters took over her thoughts, such as concentrating on swinging the sword just right, hard enough to cut through bone, but not enough to overswing and hurt herself. That day was a rather fun one, because the class was taking a break from serious studies to learn a couple parlor tricks. A basket of fresh produce sat on one side of Ying, and a pile of neatly chopped veggies lay on her other side. She tossed up a few potatoes, and swung, once, twice, trice. Six neatly sliced potato halves lay at her feet. She smiled, satisfied at her mastery of potato chopping, and grabbed a stalk of celery. By lunch, Ying had mastered the art of chopping airborne produce, anything from cherries to pumpkins. Dage was greatly impressed when Ying demonstrated her new skills for him, dicing the vegetables for dinner. Later, he watched her as she hungrily slurped his vegeteble stew; she really seemd to enjoy her new hobby. It had taken the loving brother a while to get used to the new Ying, and the new soul that possesed her. 

Dage knew this thanks to the fact that he could see and converse with what normal people called ghosts. Ghosts were actually the souls of the deceased, ones that had not yet moved on to their next reincarnation for some reason or another. Contrary to popular medical belief, comas were actually caused by the soul leaving the body prematurely, before the person's fated time of death. Dage had realized his special powers when he saw his mother weeping over Ying's prone body soon after the accident. Before leaving for reincarnation, she had told him to take good care of Ying, no matter what happened. For the next three years, Dage did extensive research on the subject, and found that there were those before him with similar powers. This was how he learned that the only way for his sister to wake up was for her soul to come back and repossess her. Day after day he would visit the temple and pray for it to return, to bring Ying back.[7]

Ironically, Dage's hard work was repaid and Ying was repossessed, but by _the wrong soul_. He could tell. Not only did she have an almost completely different personality from the old Ying, but her general impression, her psychic _feel_ was different. Alas, Dage could not complain, for he had prayed for reposession and he had gotten his wish. He came to love the new Ying as much as the old, and vowed to protect her as his mother had wished.

He never had too much trouble with Ying, because she wasn't the kind of girl to go out and socialize. She never went to parties where she might come in contact with illegal drugs or aggressive perverts, and as soon as she had learned that her mother's death had been caused by a drunk driver, she had sworn off all alchohol. Instead, she had taken up martial arts and MVRs. It was a good thing Dage didn't know about Ying's prowess in the MVR field, because if he had, he would have had something to worry about. 

Multi-player virtual realities had been developed and released during Ying's coma, but she had taken an instant liking to them as soon as they had come out. She quickly found out that people almost always underestimated girls playing the games, and so she played under male characters instead. Soon she became known as "The King of MVRs" across the network. She also became an expert hacker, and a hobby of hers was logging into people's private games without their noticing, messing around, and then logging out again. Normally, Ying would never return to a hacked game, but there was something about Wufei's that caused her to log in again day after day.

Something special.   


  
Yumemiru   
Chapter One on to Chapter Three--> 


	3. KABOOM! And Wufei is Distracted

**A Story About a Guy, a Girl, and Some Really Big Robots**  
by AkumaMR  
10.12.03

Chapter 3: KABOOM! And Wufei is Distracted

DISCLAIMER: I own naught but the totally random combination of Roman letters following.

  


Something special.

Definitely not what the programmers had in mind while making the characters. Ying watched as her virtual classmates went up to the front of the room one by one to "demonstrate the extent of their skill in swordsmanship," as Wufei put it.

Ying could tell that even best routines done were common ones that could be easily downloaded and installed by any idiot. And so, possibly more bored than she had ever been in her life, she awaited her turn. 

"Ying! Proceed to the front!" 

_Finally._

Ying approached the instructor, bowed to him, took a plain katana off the rack, and bowed again. She then turned to face the class, and after taking a deep breath, she began. She was like the wind playing with a cherry blossom. It was nothing planned, she just let the sword take her wherever it wanted to go. She spun while holding the sword still; she stood still and spun the sword around her. She swung with accuracy, once coming within a hair's width of a student's nose. After about ten minutes of swirling and swinging, Ying was ready to end her routine. The question was: _How?_ She debated whether or not to attempt a trick she always admired: tossing a spinning sword in the air and then catching it again by the handle. Whenever she had tried it before, she would end up doing something or other wrong. 

_It wouldn't hurt to try again, right?_ she thought. _After all, it's only a game._

With a flick of her wrist the sword was flung, shining like a comet, up to the rafters. Thinking to add her own little twist, Ying bowed to the class before turning to catch the blade. Alas! She had sent it spinning too fast, and there was no way she could find and grab the handle in what appeared to be a spinning silver disk falling down towards her. She reached out for what she hoped was the handle but, unfortunately, was not. She screamed as the sharp edge cut her palm. 

"Shit!" 

The programmers may have been idiots, but even an idiot knows that people in ancient China don't say "Shit!". 

The characters were programmed to ignore things like that, but Wufei was not. After a split second of shock and confusion, he realized that someone had hacked his game. Ying found out a moment later when Wufei lunged toward her in an act of fury. She quickly transfered the blade to her uninjured hand and ran for the exit with Wufei hot on her tail. She ran out into the street and made for the inn, dodging shopkeepers and villagers left and right. As she ran through the doorway, the innkeeper smiled and began, "Would you like to -" and was silenced as Ying neatly sliced off his head. She had enough time for one last look at Wufei before the game sputtered out.

---

Wufei was stunned.

_What... just... happened? Did someone hack my game?_

Wufei began furiously typing, trying to find out what happened, what went wrong, and who it was that had hacked his game, but unfortunately, the server that ran it had crashed. He took off his equipment and leaned back into the chair in front of his computer, deep in thought. 

His ponderings were disturbed by the sound of the door opening, signalling the arrival of his housemate Sally Po. 

"Hey, Wufei? I tried to get the stuff you wanted, but Lao Bing's was closed, so I went to that flashy place next door," she called as she kicked the door closed. 

"I hope you don't mind," she smiled, as Wufei appeared at the door to the kitchen. He walked over to the food and sniffed it, and his face wrinkled. Not the greatest, but edible, at least.

They both sat down to eat the Chinese take-out, Sally with her diet soda and Wufei with his bottled tea, both with break-apart chopsticks, just like they did every day. Nothing much interesting ever happened during his Preventer duties with Sally Po. His codename was Iron, and he and Sally had been patrolling the eastern half of Asia for the past few years along with a couple of other Preventers. Most of their work involved running from one place to another, following possible leads to rebellious uprisings. They rarely had to deal with real issues, the last time they tackled anything even remotely worth bragging about was months ago, when they stopped a gang of ex-colonists trying to tear down Tokyo Tower. 

But none of that mattered now. At least not in their quiet apartment on the edge of Shanghai's governmental district. He and Sally had rented one together, on the logic that it would save them money because they worked together all the time anyway. Don't get any ideas, though. Wufei had absolutely no intention of ever moving their relationship farther than friendship, though he'd noticed Sally eyeing him in an odd way every now and then.[8] 

And so their rather boring day would have proceeded, had it in fact been just another day. There was one thing that would make this day different, however, and at exactly five fifty-six, the phone rang to herald it's arrival. 

"Hello?" Sally said after she picked it up. "This is Sally." Pause. "Yes, he is." Long pause. "But why?" Pause. "Okay, I will. Bye." She hung up the phone and turned to Wufei, a quizzical look on her face.

"For some godsforsaken reason that Lady Une refuses to tell me, you are no longer a Preventer."   


  
Yumemiru   
Chapter Two onward to Chapter Four--> 


End file.
